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Almond-Poppy Muffins with Flax Seed

Hi there friends! It’s Thursday already! This week is just flying by…thank goodness. My boys come home at the end of next week, and I just can’t wait! 😄

Today, I’m sharing a recipe for muffins that I’m excited to make when my boys come home. They will know them as Almond-Poppy Muffins…I’ll be leaving the “with Flax Seed” off the end. I have a very good reason. My reason? Pure and simple…my boys are picky eaters and when they hear something weird such as flax seed, carrot, or anything else healthy for that matter, they decide it CAN’T taste good. 😁

Admittedly, this has been one of the most difficult issues I have had in all my years of child-rearing…picky eaters. While most of us have a few things that we don’t care for, I pretty much try and eat most things, so having picky eaters has been a struggle. Luckily, my two grown daughters are no longer near as picky as they were when they were younger, so I do have hope for my boys. 😉

In the meantime, I have learned many different ways to be sneaky. Very sneaky. I’m talking beyond hiding pieces of healthy foods in other things, because when it comes to food, my boys are scientists in the making. 🔎🔍 “How?”, you ask. Well, they can pretty much dissect a serving of pasta down to the chemical compound of the tomato sauce. So, while most moms can just chop something into small pieces and just slip it into something, I have to sneak it in so well that doesn’t appear that the chemical compound has been altered. 🔬

Flax seed is absolutely wonderful for this task! I can use it as an addition to all kinds of dishes and baked goods without any trace of alteration. I haven’t made a pancake in years without flax seed and they haven’t caught on yet. Woohoo! 😃

Flax seed has numerous health benefits. It contains omega-3 essential fatty acids (good fats), lignans, and fiber (both insoluble and soluble). Ground or milled flax seed is what you want to consume for the health benefits. Whole flax seed just passes through our bodies without the absorption of the omega-3’s, lignans and fiber.

Muffins are a great snack or breakfast item to add flax seed in the recipe. After a good bit of reading, I found that the best way (for the result I wanted) to add flax seed is to swap for equal amounts of the flour in the the recipe. For example, in the original recipe I had for the muffins, it called for 2 cups of flour, so I swapped 1/4 cup of the flour for 1/4 cup of flax seed.

I didn’t notice a different in taste or texture after baking between the original and the flax seed recipe, so I’m pretty sure my future scientists won’t either! I’m sure glad they’re so stinkin’ cute and lovable! ❤️❤️

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup milled flax seed

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon poppy seeds

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons almond extract

1 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with liners or grease with cooking spray.